“You’re not going to fix it that way.” The Cerean said with a small sigh.

“What’s the use?” The other asked him. “This thing is a piece of junk and it’s worthless.”

Cain Rohgeros rose and placed his hands on his hips looking down at the small hole that he had climbed out of. The hole was part of a starship and the part that he was working on had much to do with the overall maneuvering capability of the ship. “Yeah, yeah, I know, don’t let Regjin hear me talk like that.”

“Patience is a virtue.” “What are you, a Jedi or something?” Cain said with a smirk. “Look, he doesn’t want to give us the parts necessary to keep this boat floating properly, then it’s his own damn fault. Nothing I can do to fix broken.” He added, wishing he had something to kick. The Cerean who was seated on the ground, leaning against a wall, nodded slowly and closed his eyes. “Our shift is over soon anyway, what’s the point in bothering. Not like the problem is going to be fixed by the next time we have to come on shift.”

They were gas miners and this was one of the best places to do their job. From a profit and loss standpoint. The Vylobios System was located in the Outer Rim, near Ord Trasi and Anx Minor. Controlled by the Galactic Empire, the system was ripe for gas mining. There were a few rigs in the area and the company that Cain worked for was one of the biggest. Their methods were simple. Recruiting from among the thronging masses that made up the galaxy, they went to the poor and the destitute. These people were then convinced to sign away their lives to work for these mining companies. They were paid, not very well, and they were locked into their contracts for a number of years. Shuttled between the mining rigs, mining freighters, and packed housing complexes, the workers endured much to earn the money that was due to them.

Cain Rohgeros was one of those people. He had signed his life away only a few years ago at the age of twenty three. Now, four years later, he was tired of the work that he did. Tired of piloting the skimmers through the gas giant and harvesting the precious resources, of which his slice of the profit margin was minimal. He still had another six years to go before the contract that he’d signed with Nilshenki Harvest Company was up. At the age of twenty three, you thought that ten years wasn’t much, especially when you didn’t know the life that you were to be living. But now, properly educated, Cain was ready to be done. He hated the hours, he hated the living conditions, and he hated the pay.

His homeworld of Phaeda had been a paradise compared to this place and there were many nights that he stayed awake in his cramped living quarters, dreaming of a time when he would be able to return to his home. When that would be, Cain didn’t know, but he did know that he was getting to his breaking point. Between the work conditions and the fact that the monthly goals were always increased, things were getting ridiculous. The company just didn’t give them enough to work with in order to achieve the results that they were looking for. It’s like they knew nothing of business. Well, Cain couldn’t say that he knew a lot about business, but he knew that he could run this thing better than they could, that was for sure.

Turning towards the Cerean who was seated on the ground, Cain gave him a shrug. “I’m right, aren’t I, Tro?” He asked.

“Whether you’re right or not, that doesn’t mean that patience isn’t a virtue.” Tro-Se Miski said, the Cerean closing his eyes for a moment. “Though if we don’t get the temperature regulators working on some kind of normalized schedule soon, I may begin to better understand your thought process.”

“From what you tell me, your species are supposed to be the thinkers.” Cain replied. “You come up with a solution, because I am tapped out.” He said, truly tired. He was about to speak more, when the door to the room that they were in opened and a Frenk male stepped in. “What’s going on, Bosha?” Cain asked.

“Shift over in five. Figured I’d get you. Tro lose job if he don’t stop you from going crazy. Figured he’d need help.”

“Perfect timing.” Tro said, rising to his feet. “Bosha, you are now in charge of the young man, I am headed out of here.”

Cain’s eyes closed and he stretched out in his seat. This wasn’t too far actually, since the restraints did a damned good job of...restraining. He was on board a shuttle from the mining rig after the harvesting starship had docked with the rig. He was off the clock and already burning through his off time. But that was another part of this life. Sheer mismanagement of time. If you were on shift for fourteen hours a day, then you only had eight hours of off time. Thank the Force that some one in the office had made sure that they computed Vylobios time into standard time practices. But that didn’t make up for the fact that in order to get from the habitat station to the mining stations, it took about half an hour. Half an hour one way, half an hour another, now you were down to seven hours of off time. Eating, showering, all that fun stuff took up another hour, which gave you six hours.

Just enough time to take care of one errand and sleep before you started it all over again. It was a complicated system that was precariously run on the idea that workers were supposed to be screwed over. A powerful idea, that though definitely not new, had been taken and had a number of variations of it created by the credit counters in Nilshenki Harvest Company. Cain would have liked to have been able to have a word or two with those guys. Maybe have them work a few days in his shoes and then see if they were able to do what they did to the workers of the company.

His legs were able to get a bit far out in the aisle and he crossed them as he tried to get some sleep. It took him about five to ten minutes to fall asleep, which meant that he could get a good twenty minutes if he wasn’t bothered or disturbed. The crew of the shuttle walked up and down from time to time, but their mag boots weren’t that loud. Of course, they wouldn’t have needed mag boots at all if the company felt that it was worth some money to invest in artificial gravity enablers. But that had been asking too much, at least for a short thirty minute in system haul.

Just about to fall asleep, when there was a shuffling sound and a few snorts. Then a nudge to his shoulder. Wishing he’d brought the music player that he owned, Rohgeros opened his eyes as he remembered that he’d forgotten to plug it in to charge the night before. That was something that he’d have to remember. Turning to his right, he saw that the person who had nudged him was a Toydarian. Young guy, younger than he was. He was a new guy and he gave Cain a wide eyed expression.

“It’s payday.” He said.

“Yep.” Cain replied.

“I’m excited. Gonna make a lotta cash, you know?” He asked.

“First paycheck?” Cain asked and when the Toydarian nodded, he grinned. “Oh yeah, you’re going to make a lot of money.” He said, the grin turning into a smirk. “I still remember my first paycheck. It was ridiculously big, you have you no idea.”

“Nope, ‘fraid I don’t. Don’t really have a home to send it to.” Cain said.

The Toydarian nodded slowly. “Sorry to hear that buddy. Maybe you give it to me?” He asked and then laughed uproariously at his own joke. The kid had enthusiasm, Cain had to give him that. Not enough to make this not annoying, but it was something. The Toydarian settled down and Cain closed his eyes, hoping to get some sleep.

His pupil’s dilated as the water hit him. The shower felt amazing and Cain was planning on soaking up every last minute of it. He gave himself time for a ten minute shower every day. You needed that, because the smell of the different gases that they harvested, the smell pervaded everything on board those ships. It was hard to get out of the clothes, let alone off your skin. He hated the smell. It smelled like death to him. Like whatever smell one would associate with the stoppage of time. That was what the gases smelled like to Cain. Funny considering he’d been told that many of them were supposed to odorless. Maybe it was psychosomatic, but he didn’t care. He just knew that he smelt them. Putting the purplish bar of soap back in it’s little cubbyhole, he let the water do it’s thing as he counted down the last few moments of his shower for the day.

Already, Cain had eaten so that was off of his list. Today was an easy day for him, since he had nothing to do. Which meant that he was planning on getting some good sleep for a while. After checking his bank account, he’d seen that indeed, his paycheck had been deposited in there. He had a tidy sum of credits now, something that he was rather proud of. It wasn’t a ridiculously high sum, but he was smart about saving his decicreds. Rohgeros didn’t spend money unless he absolutely had to, and he was always looking for ways to make more money. Taking on more shifts was one way and he’d done that for a while. But then the company had gotten wise, and had been watching him like a hawk.

One time, just one time, he’d accidentally fallen asleep. They’d fined him and barred him from taking more shifts. He hadn’t even been in a position where someone could have gotten hurt was the best part. But he’d taken the fine, because realistically what else could he do? Arguing it wasn’t going to get him anywhere that was for sure. Now, he had a little over thirty thousand credits to his name. It was this paycheck that had pushed him over the thirty thousand mark. He wasn’t planning on dipping under it any time soon. Not at all.

Cain stepped out of the shower and grabbed his towel. As he wrapped it around himself, he heard a ding from his datapad. He remembered it as the sound that indicated that he’d received a message through the holonet. Walking over to his datapad, he hit the proper buttons to allow him to read the message.

His brow furrowed. What was this? It was a message to him from Phaeda. Something about his family. But his parents were dead. He had a younger sister and a younger brother, but they weren’t on Phaeda, not anymore. His sister was on Coruscant on some scholarship, and his brother had joined the Imperial Army. What was this then, saying that something was wrong with his family. Furthermore, who was sending him this message? His eyes flicked up to the part that gave him that information and he found that it was blank. Then he scanned over the message one more time:

datapad wrote:
Cain Rohgeros,

I hope that this finds you in good health. Unfortunately, there are members of your family here on Phaeda who are not in good health and could use help if you are willing and able to provide it. Do not worry, the situation is not bad but it could get worse.

He blinked a few times as he looked over the message again. Typing out a simple response, he sent his query back, asking who the messenger was and what was going on. Then, figuring that this had to be some kind of scam, he decided that it was time for him to get some rest.

He felt like he’d been dragged through a reactor that hadn’t been on a high level, but had been more than enough to slowly cook him. It had been three days since he had received the strange message on his datapad, and he had received no reply. But that was because Cain had barely had any time to sleep. There had been a number of different accidents and mishaps on board various Nilshenki Harvest Company vessels and that had upset timetables. Never should timetables be upset. The result was time consuming. People were started to be rushed, and that meant that the possibility of more problems happening exponentially increased. He understood that the company needed to do something to make up for lost time and lost revenue, but they were setting themselves up for failure, considering they weren’t able to fix the actual cause of the problems. However, Cain understood that he had a job to do and that he needed to do it.

Thankfully, the company had turned around and said that anyone who worked during this period would be paid time and a quarter. That little bit extra was something to look forward to when this hellacious thing was done and over with. He was ready to sleep, lying on his bed, when his datapad lit up.

Rolling over and staring at it, he saw that there was a message from someone. Groaning, Cain flopped his arm until it came in contact with the datapad, pressing something akin to the right combination of buttons to allow him to see the message. Then he stared at the message. A few moments later, he was sitting up, staring at the screen more intently. After that, he turned back. Whoever was sending these messages, had opted not to include any kind of identifying information. That was enough for him, who decided that this had to be some kind of trick, some kind of scam. Probably some schutta on Nar Shaddaa thinking that they could part him from some of his hard earned credits.

That wasn’t happening today, that was for sure.

More days passed, and they turned into a week, as time blurred. One week later, all of the problems had finally been resolved. Everything was back to normal, which meant that for Cain, he had finally had time to rest. The company had given them a few days off, and they had paid them. With the overtime that he’d gotten, he was looking at a much fatter bank account than he had been before. He’d received more of the messages, but he’d just ignored them.

* * *

He wasn’t responding to the messages. The covert approach hadn’t worked. Perhaps it was time to try the more direct approach. A skilled infiltrator was able to try a number of different ways to gain what they were looking for. When one avenue closed, it didn’t mean that the others were not readily available. It was just a matter of time, and of finding the method that would work. The person who was watching Cain Rohgeros was an expert in a number of things and a myriad of techniques. Few had ever managed to withhold their deepest and darkest secrets. This spacer, this fringer, was not going to add himself to the list.

The Vylobios system had a visitor. A single ship, of Damorian Manufacturing Corporation make, the infamous Carrack-class Cruiser. It bore Imperial IFF transponders and it was clear that it was a vessel of the Galactic Empire. Named the Aggressor, the ship broadcasted all of the proper codes that were required by the Imperial garrison in system. The system had a garrison of a few squadrons of Shielded TIE Interceptors, and a trio of Corona-class Frigates. Due to the system’s closeness to Ord Trasi, a manufacturing center, and the fact that the system was slowly developing into a resource powerhouse, they had just had a Victory-class Star Destroyer transferred to the system. It had been quite a coup for the system’s administrator. Once the proper codes had been transmitted, the Aggressor was given complete authority to do what it wished, as the authorization that it had transferred over had something to do with higher level Imperials than the garrison commander wanted to tangle with.

The ship continued on it’s path, headed towards the many hab stations that the workers of the Nilshenki Harvest Company called home. There was much work to be done and there was a schedule that needed to be kept for the workers. The people on board the Aggressor knew this. That was why they hadn’t messed around when they’d gotten their intelligence on the system and the commander of the garrison. They’d known that he wouldn’t bother them if they transmitted high enough codes.

The people on the ship were not Imperials. They belonged to an Empire, but it was an empire of Sith. A man stood on the bridge of the Carrack-class Cruiser and he looked out over the expanse of space that they still had to traverse before they would reach the hab stations. His instructions had been clear and he turned to one of the officers on the bridge.

“I believe it is time.” He said.

The officer nodded, turned, and left the bridge.

He was headed into the ship, to find a woman and tell her that they had reached the system. Her name was Sanaria Melkori and she was a Sith Assassin. None of the crew were too sure as to why she had needed to come to the Vylobios system. There wasn’t much here. No artifacts, no temples, nothing like that. It had made the trip have a peculiar vibe to it, and many of the crewmembers had been very curious as to her reasons, of which she’d given none. No explanation, at least not to the crewmembers. Even the captain of the vessel didn’t know why exactly they were here. It made him nervous. They were a Sith Empire vessel in Galactic Empire territory. Anything could happen and a war could start overnight because of his actions.

He couldn’t have turned the Sith Assassin down, but at the same time, he dind’t know what her reasons were and the last thing he wanted was to get back to Sith Empire territory and receive a reprimand for his actions.

Things were tumultous enough within the Empire as it was, and he was due for a promotion soon. Already, he’d submitted the packet for it. The man barely noticed when the woman reached the bridge, and he turned with something close to a start.

“Calm yourself, Captain.” Sanaria said. “I see we’ve arrived.” She said. “I will need a shuttle.” Melkori added and the Captain saw that she was dressed as a member of the Galactic Empire, in the traditional garb of a bureaucrat on Coruscant.

What game was she playing.

“Yes, ma’am.” He said.

“You’re wondering what I’m up to.” She said.

“I...Yes, ma’am.” He said after a moment. “I’m afraid none of us are able to peg you properly.” He said.

“Miss Crasnir, I didn’t know that the Empire was coming to do a check on Nilshenki Harvest Company. All of our sales to the Imperial armed forces have been reistered as excellent and above par. We have’t had a complaint in months.” The man said, to Zana Crasnir, Imperial bureaucrat. He didn’t look too nervous, but that didn’t mean that he was just concealing it well. A cursory use of the Force told her that. Sanaria Melkori watched as the others in the room had varying expressions on their face. Most of it had something to do with extreme interest why someone had shown up out of the blue with all the proper credentials, along with a squad of Stormtroopers requesting permission to tour the facilities.

“It’s not your products that we’re interested in.” She said after a moment, her words and timing chosen with prejudice. Everything was part of the act, and as one of the galaxy’s best infiltrators and deceivers, she never missed a cue.

“Not the...products? Then what?” The man asked, thoroughly confused as to what was going on.

“Do you not watch the news? There are Holonet advertisements being ran daily that slander the Galactic Empire. They say that the Empire is still the Empire of Palpatine, that we do not care for our people and that we are not interested in their well being.”

“Of course, but that...that is nothing but drivel.” The man blustered, and then tried to be smart. “Drivel thrown out by those who support the New Republic to try to undermine the benevolence of the Empire.”

Now that had to be a line that he’d picked up from somewhere. Probably from a Palpatine Era propaganda film, with Rebels changed to New Republic. She smiled to herself, knowing that she was starting to get under his skin. Once you found the weakness, once you found the point that one needed to exploit, it was time to finish the job. Sometimes the weakness was a character flaw, or a tie to something else. She had tried, with Rohgeros, to see if his ties to his family would be his weakness, his point that she could exploit. But she’d been wrong. This man’s weakness was a fear of the Empire and a willingness to acquiesce to any demand made by a properly uniformed member of that Empire. Fear was a powerful tool when correctly utilized. Her various masters had instilled that nugget of truth in her many times. It was time to drive the spike home.

“You are a smart man. So you can understand that I am not here to inspect your production facilities or your harvesting equipment. I have no doubt that Nilshenki maintains them to the highest of standards. No, I am here, because I wish to inspect your workers’ living conditions.” She said. “The Empire will not tolerate anyone who does not meet or exceed the standards set forth by the Code on worker living conditions when said conditions are being provided for by the company.”

Now the man was stewing, and the expressions on various members of those around the room was very similar. She smiled then. “I don’t doubt that I’ll find everything to be in accordance with policy. Because of these slanderous lies that are being propogated by Republican leaning media sources, we need to do this inspection. I am sorry that it has to be done, but we’re collating a number of different companies who have willingly subjected themselves to spot checks and have been found to fulfill their obligations. You’ll be part of a media drive to stop these lies from being said about the Empire. I trust that you’re willing to help?” She asked.

“Of course. Anything, uh, anything for the Empire.” The man said with a smile that was obviously forced. “We’ll start right away, Miss Crasnir”

Zara Crasnir was a busy person. Unlike the woman who played her, who settled into things and took her time getting her work done in order to make sure that she did the best job. But that was the beauty of having a role to play. Sanaria Melkori was an actress, one of the finest the galaxy had ever seen. She would never win any awards for what she did, though she would undoubtedly deserve them and have earned them multiple times over. Fooling people was difficult, any infiltrator, any spy would be able to tell you that. But being able to fool those with sensitivity to the Force, especially if or when they were trained, that was ridiculously difficult. She had done it though. Sanaria had done it in the past and she would do it in the future, it was just what she did. Paying only half attention to the inspection work that was going on, she did just enough to keep the people watching her thinking that she was going to snap at them at any moment. In reality, she was hard at work in other places of the hab station.

Looking. Searching. She had one, true, reason to be here and she was going to find the person that she was looking for. Her mission had been simple, given to her by someone that she feared more than the person that she had worked for prior to this, Darth Sirena. Infiltrating the Detori Order had been something that she had done for her master, Darth Sirena. So too had been infiltrating the Jedi Order on Ossus. Her master was gone now, and Sanaria had been lost in the shuffle of Sith who had been a part of Sirena’s conglomerate. Lost with no place to cling to, no one to call ally.

Strange, it had been comforting. Because her actual life had been the same as all of her pretend lives. The lines had blurred. Reality had shifted for the Kuati. Before it had seemed easy to balance the lives that she’d led, the things that had been common place and normal for each one. Maybe that had been because of Sirena. Now it was different. Now it was...chaotic. Things warring within her. She didn’t know how to control it all, how to make sense of it all. The Sith had been on the edge of a precipice, her identity gone, ready to take a plunge into a sea of anonymity.

Personalities, warring within her. Each one fighting for dominance. It was still going on now. But thankfully, thankfully she had her cure. She had found her way to freedom, if that was what it could be called. Everything was thanks to him. What he asked of her was nothing compared to what he had given. He had silenced the voices in her head. The voices that sought to control her. She heard voices in her head and they spoke to her. They told her countless things, things that she would do, things that she couldn’t remember whether or not she’d already done. It had taken so much, so much after Runnel to try to silence them.

But he had done it with but a whisper.

So she would be his messenger, his herald.

He had sent her here, to this system. To this very place. The path that she was walking it had been picked out for her by him. Her mission was simple. Use whatever means necessary and that were at her disposal to find someone. A human male, named Cain Rohgeros. Why, she didn’t know. But that didn’t matter. It was what her new master wanted and that was all that mattered.

The voices in her head telling her that she was damning everyone were wrong. They were all wrong. She would show them. Her master would show them.

The Human indentured servant was walking through the station when he heard raised voices coming from around the corner. One of them he recognized. It was Tro-Se Miski, the Cerean who worked on his harvester. The other one he didn’t recognize, but he was able to pick up on enough of their conversation to see that they were in some kind of argument. When he came around the corner, he saw that it was indeed the Cerean. The person that he was talking to, arguing with, was a human and they were deep into some kind of discussion about living conditions. Cain came around the corner to hear the tail end of a sentence.

“...then we should voice those concerns to the representative from the Empire!” The human said.

Tro-Se shook his head and then he saw Cain. “Cain, talk some sense into Smoli. He thinks that the Empire’s representative is here to actually do some good work. As if the Empire has ever done anything good for anyone but itself.”

“How can you talk like that?” Stoli asked, the native of Carida getting angry. “The Empire brings law and order to the masses. The liberties that we give up are a small price to pay for the peace of mind that we have.”

“The peace of mind that we have?” Cain asked. “The peace of mind that we’re not really much more than sheep? I have no problem with an Empire, if the people in charge were smart. Think of it this way. If the Nilshenki Board knew how to run a company and run it well, would you be standing here talking to Tro-Se about complaining to the stiff that was sent here? Not a chance.”

“Exactly.” The Cerean said, chiming in. “The problem is that everyone thinks of self first and they’re not willing to help each other out. The result is similar to the Empire. The wealthy stay wealthy, and the people with power remain. It is difficult to rise above the strata of society that you are born in to.”

“Once a harvester, always a harvester, is what Tro-Se is trying to say.” Cain said with a smirk.

The Cerean shook his head, frowning and sighing. That was not what he had been trying to say at all. Of course Cain was going to use this as an easy way to excite the easily excitable and already excited Smoli. The human that they were talking to glared at Cain and then huffed, walking away. “Interesting response. I thought you were headed for a fight.”

“Smoli’s smart. He knows I wasn’t being serious.”

“I wonder what your plan is for when you play your tricks with someone who isn’t as ‘smart’.” Tro-Se said, reaching forward and lightly squeezing Cain’s right upper arm. “That being said, Smoli, for all of his fire and fervor, does have a point. Why is the Empire here? They’ve never cared about Nilshenki or Vylobios in the past. I thought we supplied some compressed gases and what not to the Imperial war machine, but outside of that, I didn’t think we were more than a blip on some Moff’s weekly sensor sweeps.”

“That’s exactly what we are.” Cain replied with a shrug. “Makes this whole thing pretty peculiar. But I’m not in any particular place to bother with it.” He said. “Long as the stiff doesn’t force them to make any real changes.”

“I thought you wanted change.”

The other man smiled and resumed the journey that he’d been on before he’d been sidetracked by Tro-Se and Smoli. “I don’t like change to things I already know. Yeah, this place sucks worse than Palpatine did at tanning, but better what we do know than what we don’t, I guess.” He said.

He turned his back on the Cerean, not knowing that that would be the last time that he would ever see his friend.

Crasnir walked through one of the reactor rooms that made up the overall reactor setup that powered the hab station. The set up that they had was a complex one, but it was old. Faulty and in desperate need of repair. The fuel lines were strong, otherwise that would have been where she had gone for her subterfuge. But they were sturdy enough and that avenue of attack had been thusly closed to her. She was a bit worried about her plan though, considering that the hab station had a number of different reactors. Each one was a collection of reactors, they themselves comprised of old starship reactors. The problem was that they were talking reactors used to create energy for a ship the size of a YT-1300. Take one of them out, and you did some damage, sure, but that was only a smidgen of power compared to the overall energy needed to keep the station running and everything going.

This complicated matters for her. If she took out a group of the reactors, which was her current plan, there was a possibility that this would cause enough damage to get the desired results, but she couldn’t be sure. While she was from Kuat, there was only so much that she had learned about technology and mechanics. Her education had delved into far different subjects and things. But that did not mean that she had given up. Her job was an important one and she was far from without a way to cause the damage that she needed. Within her body were organisms that granted her wondrous abilities and she could readily make use of them if required.

So when she saw the exhaust conduit, she knew that she had what she was looking for.

The exhaust conduit allowed for excess heat and energy to bleed out of the hab station. The station was old having seen a number of refits over the years. Originally, the reactors that had been a part of the hab station had been singular block reactors, probably from CEC or Rendilli. They had been cannibalized for some project, with the groups of reactors being put in instead. However, if her math was right, there had been a total of three large scale reactors original in place where now there were three groups of four smaller reactors.

All of that excess heat and energy had to go somewhere. The exhaust conduit was a linked system that had allowed all three reactors to bleed out in the same location. As the extra heat and energy had been on it’s way out, it had been utilized to keep the engineering section of the station warm if need be. While the reactors had been replaced, the means of ridding the excess had not. All of the groups had multiple cables that hooked up into the system. This meant that if the exhaust conduit was damaged, all three sets of reactors were in trouble. If the damage was extensive enough to cause an explosion, then engineering, which had been built around the exhaust conduit, would be destroyed as well.

Leaving no way for anyone to properly fix the reactors or the station. The place would be lost. It wasn’t hard to create a temporary pocket of nothingness in the memories of the people with her, a simple two minute long window that allowed Sanaria to open up the briefcase that she’d brought with her and take out the two Nergon-14 charges that were inside. Priming them, and attaching them to the exhaust conduit was even easier. Last but not least, when she’d rejoined the group in the main control center, she flipped all the reactors to overdrive. With such a small staff looking after everything, she had no doubt that no one would pick up on what she’d done, at least not in time for them to stop her.

The fringer walked through the double doors and onto one of the observation decks of the station. This whole walk through thing was annoying him. Things were having to change, and his plans for the day had been shot through the airlock. That was something that annoyed him greatly. But he pushed the thoughts out of his mind as he looked out at the stars. Freedom was out there. Freedom that he could get his hands on if only he had the chance. That was what he was saving up the money for. Once his contract was up, he was decidedly not resigning with the Nilshenki Harvest Company. Hopefully, Cain would have enough money to purchase a ship. Even if it was a beat up second hand ship, that would be okay with him. He just needed something, something with an engine and a reactor. Maybe some shielding on the hull and a few maneuvering jets here and there. The second hand market in the Vylobios system was all but dead, but since most people worked for Nilshenki and lived on their hab stations, that made sense.

He’d been scouring the Holonet for some time now, trying to find a good deal on a ship. There had been a few YT series that he’d seen that would fit the bill, but he didn’t want to get a YT. Everyone had one of those and while Cain didn’t want to stand out, he did want some semblance of individuality. Far too much was he used to being a nameless, faceless member of a society that was apathetic to everything around it. He wanted to be his own person and that would be one of the choices that he would make that would cement that. But for now, he could only look out at the stars and dream and think of the things that were to come. They would be his one day, he just needed to work at it and wait for his time to come.

The man turned at the sound of the doors opening behind him. There was a small group of people who walked into the observatory level. There were members of various species, but all of them had a look on their face that told him that they were rather upset. His eyes narrowed slightly as he took it all in. Realization hit him then, he knew who they were and what they wanted to do. These were members of the hab station that were always pushing for more and more rights. Constantly protesting, they had been working for some time against the Nilshenki Harvest Company, and Cain had a bad feeling that they were going to do something now, with the representative of the Galactic Empire present.

Not good, not good at all. Cain didn’t have too much personal experience with it, but he had heard enough stories about what the Empire did when there were revolts or even demonstrations that they didn’t agree with. The stormtroopers came out and then the blasters came out and people started to get hurt. That was the last thing that he wanted to see happen, especially here. Many of the people on the station he knew, some of them he knew very well. Few though were true friends, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see everyone get hurt. From a purely selfish outlook, it also meant that there would be a slow down of work and that his bottom line was going to suffer.

Assuming he made it out of any Imperial reprisal alive.

He was about to open his mouth to speak, to ask them not to do anything foolish or rash, when the whole station shook. Eyes widening, Cain reached a hand out, trying to steady himself against a wall. What the hell had these guys done? There was another shake and then a tremor. This wasn’t good at all. It seemed like the whole station was getting ready to blow. Everything settled, and Cain’s eyes locked onto the first person in the room’s, a Trandoshan. Fear was in the other man’s eyes and that was when it hit Cain that whatever was happening was news to these people too. No matter what they threatened, they’d never done something like this and they hadn’t been the ones to do this attack. That just made it worse.

When his eyes opened, Cain struggled to think about why everything looked so hazy. Why everything looked so liquidey. He realized after a few moments that this was due to the fact that he was submerged in some kind of liquid, a breathing apparatus attached so that he could respirate. Then he realized that he had been in this kind of situation before, after a really bad accident that he had sustained during one of his shifts with the harvesters. Bacta. He was floating in a vat of bacta and there was a timer that he could see, the blood red numbers a little hard to distinguish. They were changing, counting down, and the count down was almost over. This dunking in the bacta tanks, whichever number it was, was almost over. He was grateful for that. Cain hadn’t liked his first trip into a bacta tank and this feeling of weightlessness, of nothingness was something that he didn’t like. He wanted it to end and he found himself being lifted out of the tank by metallic arms. For that he was grateful too.

The breathing apparatus was detached and he coughed, pulling in regular, non filtered air. Soon he found himself dumped on a table. On the table for no more than a minute, Cain lifted his head as a medical droid walked into the room. The droid, if it had any surprise at him being awake, gave nothing away. It simply deposited a stack of towels that it had brought in.

“You are cognizant.” It said. “This is good. I wondered how long it would take until you were. I shall alert the master.” It added, before turning and heading out of the room, not saying anything more.

Well that was interesting. It raised a bunch of questions, first and foremost being who was this master? But Cain didn’t worry about the question, deciding that all things considered, he was probably going to find out rather soon just who the droid had been referring to. Rifling through the towels, he found not only a few of them, but also a robe that appeared to be his size. He quickly toweled off, but not well enough to remove all of the bacta and then slid into the robe. It wasn’t too comfortable, but it got the job done, which was all that he could ask for. Barely getting a chance to get comfortable both in the room and on the table, he looked up as the door opened again.

The medical droid entered once more, but it wasn’t alone. There was a woman with him. She was dressed in a simply black flight suit, without any kind of indicator of name or title. There was a patch on each of the shoulders, with the emblem of the Galactic Empire. A holster was on her hip, and a small blaster was safely ensconced inside of the nerf-hide leather. The flight suit was tucked into a pair of black leather boots. Long, black hair was pulled into a tight braid that extended down past her shoulders and brown eyes looked at him. There was something about her, something that was weird, out of place. She seemed, hungry. For something, but he didn’t know what it was, couldn’t tell what it was. He just knew that she looked eager, like she was on the verge of something great, of finally getting what she wanted.

She was handed a datapad by the droid and she looked down at it quickly. All he could guess was that she was an Imperial and that the medical room that he was in, belonged to the Galactic Empire.

Cain paused. This was where he was as hazy as his vision had been while in the bacta tank. “Bits. Pieces.” He said. “There was a group of people in the hab station, who were dissidents in a sense against the Empire. They...were going to talk to the Empire’s representative and then there was an explosion. That’s all I remember.”

“You’re lucky to be alive.” She said. “We found you and got you into the bacta tank. You’re one of the few survivors.” The woman said. She leaned against one of the counters and folded her arms over her chest. “My name is Zara Crasnir, and you’re on board the Imperial Carrack-class Cruiser, the Aggressor. I was the Imperial representative on board the hab station at the time of the attack.”

“Attack?”

“We don’t know exactly what it was. An attack or a malfunction. Either way, over ninety percent of the people who lived on that hab station or who were there at the time are dead. A good seventy five were killed in the blast itself, and the rest died before we could get to them, due to their injuries or due to asphyxiation due to being exposed to the vacuum of space. We’re still collecting bodies.”

Her tone was what confused him. It was detached, as though she was simply reading from a report that she had memorized. “That, uh, that sucks.” He said, trying to process it all. “I had friends on board.”

“We’re in the process of cataloging the bodies and trying to find identification for them.” Zara said.

She turned to leave.

“So, what’s going to happen to me?” He asked.

“That remains to be seen. We found out some interesting information about you, Cain Rohgeros, information that needs to be verified.”

This drew his attention immediately.

“Wait, what are you talking about?” He asked, getting up off the table and starting towards her.

The woman gave a small shrug and a simple smile. “Don’t worry, it shouldn’t be anything you can’t handle, from what we’ve read up about you. You’ll remain here for questioning.” Crasnir said and when he started to walk towards her again, she raised a hand to forestall any more. The door opened and the medical droid exited. As she walked out, she turned and looked at him. “Don’t go anywhere. It’s not like you can, anyway.”

A few hours had passed and Cain found himself pacing around the medical room once again. He was hungry, and he wanted clothes. The robe was starting to get uncomfortable. As if his thoughts were being read, less than five minutes later, the door opened and a burly looking man dressed similarly to the way that Zara Crasnir had been stepped inside. He carried a tray in one hand, and a set of clothes in the other. He set both on the ground and then turned, leaving the same way that he had entered, in silence. While he didn’t want to trust these people, because he really didn’t know what was going on, Cain knew that he couldn’t starve. Walking forward, he grabbed the tray first and retreated a few steps. The meal was simple and rather bland. But it calmed his stomach and ended a lot of the hunger pangs that he was feeling. None of the utensils were metal, and all were rather flimsy.

Nothing that he could use should he want to try to make an escape.

Next, Cain looked at the clothes. The set was the same as that of Zara and the man who had walked in. Black jumpsuit, with an Imperial patch on the shoulders, black boots. His set did not have a holster and definitely did not have a blaster. With a look of bewilderment, Cain set about getting dressed. He had no idea what was going on, where he really was, and who these people were. He’d heard of the Empire doing some crazy things but he’d never really experienced them. This was something else though. By the time he was dressed, Cain’s mind had shifted to something else. What Zara had said about the explosion. A wave of sadness came over him.

He hadn’t been friends with too many people on board that hab station, but that didn’t mean that he hadn’t had friends. People like Tro. He couldn’t believe that Tro was dead. He didn’t know for sure, but he had a feeling that the Cerean had been killed in the explosion. He needed to find out what was going on.

The doors to the medical room opened again, with the same man as before stepping inside.

“I’m to ask you to come with me, and without any fuss.”

“What’s going on?” Cain asked.

“I do as I’m told.” The guy said.

“How’s that working out for you?” Cain asked with a smirk on his face as he walked out of the room.

The other man didn’t say anything, he just took the lead and they started walking. Cain had never been on a Carrack-class Cruiser before. He didn’t know his way around the ship. There was no way that he was going to try to escape or do anything until he knew what was going on.

Right now, this Zara Crasnir held all the Sabaac cards. That was something that he needed to work on if he was going to figure out what the hell was going on and how to get out of here in one piece.

The room that he was taken too was a simple meeting room. A long, rectangular table dominated one’s vision as soon as one stepped in. The table itself was taken up for the most part by a large, built in holo projector. Zara Crasnir was sitting at the table. Lounging was the better word for it. Her feet were up, on the table and she was still in the same clothing that he had seen her in before. Cain gave the room a once over and then turned to see that the guy that had brought him here was already gone, and the door was shut. He didn’t bother to try to open it. He figured that it would be locked. When his gaze turned back to the woman sitting in the chair, Cain was able to take her in better. She seemed at east on board the ship, and at ease in the chair.

Everything about her seemed well crafted, and well polished. As though she had been in the role that he was currently in, her entire life. That had to be interesting, to know exactly who and what you were from day one. Envy snaked through him for a moment, but it passed. Mainly because she spoke and his thoughts latched on to what she was saying. “So you’ve been a busy man.”

“Well, I’ve tried to save up a few credits here and there. Take a few extra shifts. Nothing crazy. But something tells me that we’re not here to discuss my measly little bank account.” He said.

“On the contrary.” She replied, pressing a button that was a part of a bank of controls that were built into the table near her position. “I think that’s something that I’d like to discuss. You are Cain Rohgeros, after all.”

“You know, that’s starting to be a sticking point in all of this. I don’t understand it. You keep saying that as though I’m something more than just a gas harvester in the Vylobios system.” He said, shaking his head. He didn't understand where all of this was coming from and just what, exactly, she was trying to get at. None of this made any damn sense to him, he just wanted some answers, some explanation that made sense.

“Aren’t you?” She asked with a smile as the projector warmed up. The lights dimmed a little and the projector started, shooting a green display up into the air. This was bound to get his attention, and she knew it.

He stared at her through the numbers, until his eyes focused on the numbers and not the face of the woman who was in the room with him. This was...but how? None of it made any sense to him and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Cain couldn’t believe it at all. Zara had the pleasure of seeing mild shock roll over his face. “Wait, that’s not my bank account. I don’t...that’s impossible. I don’t have over six million credits.”

“Six point oh seven, to be exact.”

“Whatever the number is, they’re not mine. What the hell is going on, Ms. Crasnir?”

Interesting. Pupil dilation was normal for shock. A nervous tic had appeared on the edge of his right eyes and he was blinking faster than she had seen him blink in the past, though she really hadn’t had enough time to establish a baseline. Still, all things considered, he was telling the truth, that much she was able to garner. Why wouldn’t he be? After all, he was telling the truth. The six million and change wasn’t his, it belonged to her actually. Part of the money that she called hers, money that she didn't care about, it was there only to serve a purpose. Money wasn't power in Sanaria Melkori's mind, though in Zara Crasnir's mind, it held far more importance. The point was to straddle the fence between act and reality and to do it effortlessly. The money had been funneled into a fake account created for purposes such as these. All she needed to do was change the name that the account belonged to and any other pertinent information that needed to be fixed. Coercive actions, some might have said.

Zara liked to call it recruitment.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said

“I know you want me to think that, but it’s not going to work. Anyway, let’s talk business. I know who you are, you don’t want me to know you are. I have a job that I need done, that the Empire needs done. You’re going to do it for me. Otherwise, I’m going to turn this evidence over to all of the proper authorities and they’re going to deal with you the way that they know best.” She said.

He paused. “Wait, hold on. Before we go further, I think I’m saying the wrong things. Who do you think I am?” He asked.

He caught on quick, this Cain Rohgeros. He had been a wise choice, but of course, her master never made mistakes.

“I don’t think your name is Cain Rohgeros at all. I think you’re Anris Stoy.” She said. “A very skilled mercenary and assassin. A man who was able to get things done and do it the right way the first time. That’s why I’ve sought you out for this job. Bring you out of hiding.”

It was all about inflection. The way that her voice was utilized, the way that her body was draped in the chair. The assuredness that she was conveying through more than just her words. Whether he knew it or not, Cain was picking up on everything, and his subconscious was going to file it away to study later. That was why she was doing everything the way that she was doing it. All of it was an act. She was an actress, the galaxy her stage. The scene had been set, the players put into motion. The woman knew her lines and was ready to dance the way she needed to, to get Cain to do what she needed him to do.

“Anris Stoy.” Cain said and she could see from the look on his face that he had never heard of the name before just now. Which made sense. The name was an alias used by an actual mercenary, a man named Aeorn Mors. A Mandalorian who was quite good at what he did. She had read about the man extensively when she had been planning this undertaking. Not one to be unprepared, Sanaria knew what she needed to do in order to ensure that her master’s plan would come to fruition. As if she needed a reminder of why she was working so hard, she felt her hands start to tremble. Desperately, she wanted to close her eyes, to block what was coming, even though she knew that she couldn’t. She had to fight it and remain in the present, otherwise Cain Rohgeros would know that something was wrong. This whole set up was predicated on him thinking that she was Zara Crasnir.

She blinked and then Zara Crasnir wasn’t in the room anymore. Nor was Sanaria Melkori. In their stead was a young woman named Coris Skywalker. Coris Skywalker was a woman who had been employed by the New Republic Office of Transit on Bothawui. She had been at her job for total summation of three months before a series of unfortunate events had befallen the people in her office. A deadly virus had broken out on Bothawui, and the office had been hit hard. Coris Skywalker had been one of the casualties. In order for everything to work out properly, she had been injected with a milder strain of the virus in question and forced to undergo many of symptoms and the effects, much of the time in full public view. Funny, a few weeks after her death, they had found out that a large amount of information had been stolen on the comings and goings of various beings in the system, important people.

No one had suspected the young woman, though it had been her who had stolen the information. For that particular role, she had had to be innocent, fresh faced, a woman in the galaxy who hadn’t seen too much hardship but who had an edge to her, underneath it all. A woman who could be bullied and pushed around, even pushed to the edge a few times. It had been an easy role, in a way, and a tough one, in a way. Sanaria wasn’t one to be innocent and easy to push around, but that had been what the role had required.

Unfortunately for Sanaria, she had had to be actually poisoned in order for it to work. She had had the antidote and it had been administered to her after she had been declared “dead”, by the coroner, who had been in on the whole thing, poor soul who she’d killed later. Whenever the voices came, whenever she lost her bearings, and drifted back into an identity crisis, it was always the moments of extreme emotion that grabbed her, and for Coris Skywalker, the most extreme emotion that she had felt in her short life, had been when she’d died.

It had been quite powerful.

But how to control hyperventilating in front of Cain? Difficult, to say the least. The shaking of the hands, that could be controlled, or at least contained, by sticking the hands underneath the table. The dilation of the pupils, the shortness of the breath, the chest heaving up and down and the overwhelming feeling that this, then was the end, that her death was coming and that there was nothing that she could do from stopping her throat from seizing up and choking on her own bile and spit due to her all of her systems shutting down, it was all so much, too much for her to bear.

She just managed to hit the button that alerted her servant outside that it was time to cut the meeting short.

He barged in and reached for Cain. “It’s time to go.” The man said, and dragged him out of the room before Cain could say anything. Whether or not he had seen what had happened to her, she didn’t know.

Then she was able to hit the button on the console that locked the room and soundproofed it.

Cain found himself in an actual room this time. Sparse and spartan, he couldn’t tell if this was due to design or intention. He’d never been on a Carrack-class before. But if the purpose of the room was to keep him bored and keep him away from the rest of the galaxy, then it did it’s purpose. The room had a single, treated transparisteel window that he could look out of. Not that that did him much good. After all, he looked out at the bleakness that was space. Star charts had never been something that had interested him, so looking out of the small viewport didn’t help him in locating where he was in the galaxy. In the end, he truly was this Zara Crasnir’s prisoner. Which meant that he needed to try to figure out what was going on through what he had experienced himself.

What could he say about her words? They confused him, very much so. Who was Anris Stoy? Why did she think that he, Cain, was this Anris person? He had never done anything fantastic with his life, so what would make her think that he was a bounty hunter, a mercenary? It didn’t make sense. Next, she seemed so sure of her information, as if she wasn’t wrong. But there was something else, underneath it all, something deeper. It was as if she couldn’t be wrong. The feeling was prevalent that there was more going on than she was revealing to him. That much was the most obvious thing that he had been able to figure out since this whole situation had started.

That brought him to the largest variable that was also the most interesting.

The woman herself.

Something had happened, at the end of that meeting. Something that had worried her, he had been able to see it in her eyes, before her assistant, or thug, or whatever he was had entered the room and had grabbed him, taking him out of there. But what was it? What could have unsettled her like that.

She seemed so calm, so assured, so in control. It was hard to imagine her out of control. That was weird in and of itself, since he’d only known her for a few short hours. There was a feeling however, that he knew her very well. Trust, that wasn’t there, but he felt a kinship, an understanding. Cain couldn’t put his finger on it, precisely, but he wanted to talk to her more, to figure out why she thought what she thought. How had sh come to think this way about him? Zara Crasnir was an enigma, that was for sure. All he knew was that she worked for the Galactic Empire, and she was very mistaken about his identity. The rest was a mystery.

There was a knock on the door. He rose, expecting the man from before and he wasn’t disappointed. Whereas before he had been holding clothes, now he held a box. “Put it on. We’re getting a move on and I’ve been told to make sure that you’re ready.”

“Again with the ‘you’ve been told’ stuff.” Cain said with a subtle smirk. “You really need to work on that.” He added and then waited until the man opened his mouth to speak. “Wait, let me guess, you haven’t been told to.”

The other man’s face changed into a glare, as his mouth formed a thin line. “If I ever get told to take you down, I’m going to enjoy it.”

Now wearing a set of basic Stormtrooper armor that had been painted black, Cain found himself on the bridge of the Carrack-class Cruiser. They were still in hyperspace, and their point of destination wasn’t anything that he could pick up on. After all, the light tunnel of hyperspace was a shroud of mystery. Crasnir didn’t acknowledge his presence, she remained silent, in the captain’s chair. The actual captain seemed a bit perturbed by this, as though he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to stand or sit. Cain flashed him a big smile as he walked by. If he was going to be absconded and taken from Vylobios and sent to do some crazy thing by a somewhat attractive lady that had some issues with reality, well, he might as well have some fun with it. He stopped in front of Crasnir and turned to look at her.

“You beckoned?” He asked.

She didn’t look at him, and there was a hollowness to her eyes that he had not seen before. As though she was there, but she wasn’t at the same time. Resisting the urge to crouch and wave a hand in front of her, he lightly coughed. The big guy who’d been his escort everywhere raised an eyebrow and stepped forward.

Crasnir raised a hand and the man stopped in mid stride, before taking a step back and returning to his previous pose.

“I did.” She said, looking up at him finally. “Anris Stoy, I have a job for you. One that, unfortunately, you can’t not accept.”

“What’s the job?” He asked, glad that they were finally getting to the heart of the matter.

“Theft. I want you to steal something for me.” She said. Reaching into her pockets, she pulled out a small coin of some metal and tossed it to him. It had no imprint on it, it was a blank disc. “Do you know what that is?” She asked. As he shook his head, she smiled and continued. “It’s aurodium. Ten ingots of that, back almost three decades before the Battle of Yavin, were worth three billion credits. So three hundred million an ingot. That coin, is about one hundredth of an ingot.”

“Three million credits?” He asked, dumbfounded.

“At least you’re not weak at mathematics.” She said, rising. “Yes, three million credits, Cain Rohgeros. Now, the value of the metal has decreased in the almost fifty years since, but it’s valuable enough still. I’ll take that back, now.” Zara said, holding out her hand. With some reluctance, he deposited it in her hand. She withdrew the coin from sight.

“Wait a minute, that means we’re hitting some kind of bank or depository.” He said, his eyes narrowing. “This has got to be a big government then. You’re the Empire, which rules them out.” He said and she nodded slowly. “I don’t know that much about the rest of the galaxy.”

The Carrack-class Cruiser reverted in Imperial space. Standing on the bridge, Cain could see the astrological charts that the navigator was poring over and with that, he was able to see that they hadn’t indeed gone very far from Vylobios. The small cruiser’s hyperdrive had brought them to Garqi, an Imperial system that was located on the Braxant Run. He’d heard of the planet before. Back at the Nilshenki Harvest Company, there had been a portly man, with an impressive moustache who had always complained about the caf that was served in system. He’d always said, with such a close proximity to Garqi, why couldn’t the caf be better, and the beans a better a variety? It had never made much sense to Cain, and even now he didn’t understand why the man had said that. But truth be told, they weren’t that far away from Vylobios. Maybe there was something about it. Part of him wanted to know, it was a connection to the past, to the people that he had known that were now dead.

To Tro-Se Miski, the closest thing to a true friend that he’d ever had in his life, since he’d left his homeworld of Phaeda.

“What are we doing here?” He asked, snapping himself out of his reverie. They were going to be conducting a serious heist and he couldn’t afford to be sidetracked by anything, considering he was not the man that Zara Crasnir thought he was and he undoubtedly couldn’t do any of the things that the actual Anris Stoy could do. The last thing he did want to do, though, was end up like Tro.

Dead. Nothing but a corpse.

“We need a ship.” Zara said, idly, as the ship started towards the planet. “Before you spout off with a humorous quip that we’re already on one, yes, I know that.” She added, quickly. “For this to work, we need a smaller ship, with a much less distinctive profile. One must wonder the reaction should a ship such as this, with transponders such as ours, were to arrive in a non-friendly system.” There were idle hand gestures as she spoke, but Cain’s eyes were locked on the planet below. She had not confirmed that they were going to be stealing from the New Republic, but he doubted that they would be stealing from the Empire. So this was just another stop on the journey, but he wanted to know what her plan was. How was he going to get out of this?

When Cain didn’t volunteer a response, she rose and walked up to where he was standing. Turning her head up towards his, she waited, until he looked at her. The four inch difference in their height was noticeable. “I have business to conduct on the ground. You will accompany me. Do not attempt to make trouble, or Mayehn will have to intervene.”

He looked confused for a moment and then his eyes alighted on the silent man who had been his escort all the time.

“So he does have a name.” Cain said.

Mayehn stared at him. Cain went for a sheepish grin. It wasn’t very effective.

“Yes, he does. So you will be watched. Don’t try anything.” Zara said. “We leave in fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen minutes.” Cain said, giving one last look towards the planet, before he turned and followed Zara off the bridge, Mayehn following him.

The sector capital for the Tadrin subsector was a beautiful place. It’s level of humidity was not that high, but already it was beyond what Cain was used to. Arid air was what he was used to, and this was something quite unlike that. If the other two that were with him noticed his discomfort, they opted not to make an overt note of it. The group of three were down, planet side, and Zara walked with an extreme sense of urgency and purpose. She didn’t want to spend that much time on the planet, from the looks of things, and there was a definitive agenda to their trip. Silent for the entire way, Zara ensured that Cain’s only companion to converse with was Mayehn, and the large man took the concept of silence to that of an upper echelon. The speeder that they were in was an older model, somewhat beat up. A cursory glance told him that he’d used many of these parts second hand during his maintenance work on the gas harvesters back in the Vylobios system. Their destination quickly became apparent, when he saw a very Imperial looking building in the distance.

They pulled up and parked the speeder. The trio got out and paid the driver, who took his fare and then left. Zara turned to Mayehn. “You and Cain are to obtain a suitable vessel from the impound lot.” She said. “You know what we need.” The woman added and then she was gone, headed into the building and out of sight.

Mayehn turned to Cain and indicated that he should follow, still silent.

The two entered an adjacent building. There were guards there, but Mayehn produced some kind of identification that allowed the two of them to pass through. Cain couldn’t help it, he got a little nervous. These were men carrying blaster rifles, after all. BlasTech E-11s, the standard rifle of the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps. With but a shot, his life could be ended. While he didn’t know who exactly this Zara Crasnir was, she was an Imperial of some sort of clout. That was something that was easy to pick up upon. Mayehn barely mentioned her, and the soldiers in the room were willing to let them through and give them the assistance that they needed.

They were led into a turbolift and a short ride later, the two of them found themselves in a large underground hangar. The hangar was filled with a little over twenty ships of various makes and models. All of them were freighters or transports, the type utilized by smugglers and those who had found themselves on the opposite side of the unflinching and unrelenting side of Imperial Law. In the same way, all of them were modified in some shape. None of them were stock. Mayehn started to walk around the hangar and Cain followed. He wasn’t sure what the other man was looking for. But then again, he didn’t know what exactly their needs were for this operation that they were working on.

After a few minutes, Mayehn seemed to have made up his mind. They were standing in front of a vessel of Corellian make. One of the YT series that smugglers had made infamous over the years. Mayehn looked the vessel up and down and then checked the datapad that was in his hands that had the specifications of the vessel. He nodded and looked at Cain.

“This one will do. It will suit our needs.” He said, the first words since they had landed on the planet. “Let’s get Ms. Crasnir.”

The door to the office was left open. That indicated a lot about how the conversation was to take place. No matter which way you looked at it, it was obvious that this was something that everyone in the whole office floor was going to see.

“I’ve filed all my reports the right way. I’ve been doing work, good work.” She said.

“Yes, you have, but at the same time, you’re supposed to check in, regularly, in fact.” Abram Kolskorni said. “That’s something that I have a problem with. Just because you file reports about what you’re doing doesn’t mean that you go gallivanting across the galaxy, with company property.”

He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers, surveying the woman in front of him. She was good at her job, that much was true, but he’d been starting to hear talk around the shop about how she was able to get away with whatever she wanted. Intolerable, it had been festering in his mind for weeks now. Since she was here, it was time to ensure that Hagris properly understood his feelings on the subject. Her behavior was going to have to change. The door was open so that everyone in the office would be privy to this conversation. No one was going to challenge his authority, no matter how good they were at their job.

When it came to being the boss, the credit stopped with him. That was how the place was run.

“I understand that, sir, and I apologize. Things have just been very hectic, and I’m sure that you can see that from the reports that I’ve sent in.”

“Honestly, I don’t care about the reports. They’re alright, nothing great. I’m not seeing justification for the credits that you’re spending, and you have one of the highest expense accounts out of anyone in the office. This is bull, Hagris. I’ve been considering taking you out of the field and sticking you behind a desk for a while, so you understand the value of time and money.”

A remorseful look came over her face. That brought a smile inside of him. Good to know that he was getting to her, getting under her skin. He hated not being feared by the people who worked for him. She was undermining his authority and it was going to stop. “I understand that, sir. I do. Once again, I do apologize for my actions. I will try in the future to ensure that I come into the office on a much more regularly basis to make sure that I’m visible.”

“Good, good. This is your only warning. If I feel that you’re not putting in enough face time here, then you’re going to be yanked. What are you working on now?”

The Phaedran found himself at a loss, an occurrence that he was unfortunately finding more and more common. The man was watching a small tank of fish. That was something that had to be difficult in this galaxy, being a biologist. Or any scientist that dealt with animals and their classification. What was the exact term, taxidermist or something like that? The sheer number of species that existed in the galaxy. How could you possibly quantify and qualify all the different kinds of fish that existed on one planet, let alone one system, one sector, and so on and so forth. That had to be a tiring job. Not as tiring, it seemed, as the job that was done by the people in this office. This was an Imperial Intelligence station, that much he had figured out. What exactly they did as a cover, he didn’t know.

But what he did know was that he stuck out like a sore thumb. Even Mayehn, who was rather large and very physically imposing compared to the analysts that populated the office, seemed to fit in. Cain, however, did not. It wasn’t his dress, but his demeanor.

He couldn’t help it, he felt uptight in the room. Even if the people weren’t that important or that powerful, they were more so than he was, and he knew he wasn’t supposed to be there. Mayehn caught on to what Cain was feeling.

“Relax.”

“Easy enough for you to say. You look like blaster bolts bounce of you. How much weight do you bench press?” Cain asked, nervously trying to go for a laugh.

The other’s lips cracked ever so slightly.

So he was something resembling “human”.

“It’s not the strength or the endurance possessed that gives the confidence to dominate a room.” Mayehn said in reply, his words carrying seemingly boundless weight.

“Once again, easy enough for you to say.” Cain shot back, shifting his weight nervously from foot to foot.

“You will learn, with time.”

That was when Cain figured it was worth a shot. “Okay, so at least you know that I’m not that mercenary guy that she’s trying to say that I am, right?” He asked. “I mean, come on, I’m fairly worried and nervous right now in a room full of analysts and paper pushers. The stormtroopers downstairs with the E-11s were getting me breaking out into sweats. I’m not the guy that she’s looking for.”

“Whether you are the ‘guy’ she’s looking for or not, you are, in actuality, the guy that she’s looking for.”

“I’ll work on confidence, if you work on making sense.” Cain replied, as a door near them opened. A woman stepped out and his eyes widened slightly. What the hell? It was Zara Crasnir, but she appeared radically different than the way that he was used to seeing her. She was dressed similarly, but the hair was a different color, and so were the eyes. The expression was different, far more docile, far more subservient. She walked towards them, but stopped when a man followed her out and called out in a strong voice, geared to ensure that everyone in the room heard.

“Ms. Hagris, remember what we spoke about.” He said.

She turned and nodded, being so ridiculously deferential.

“Of course, sir.” She said, and walked over to where Cain and Mayehn were. “Let’s go.” She said, leaving no room for argument or discussion.

“So, we’re stealing from the New Republic. How’s that going to work, exactly?” Cain asked.

Zara looked at him, a smile on her face. If it had been possible for her to be more cryptic and more aloof, Cain hadn’t thought it possible, but she had managed to do just that, ever since they had been at that Imperial Intelligence building, or whatever it had been. Something had happened in that meeting, he’d never seen her like that. At the same time, Cain barely knew the woman. But still, something had been off. Also, she’d been utilizing a different name. Who was Mara Hagris? That was the name that Crasnir had been going by while they were there. So what was really going on?

“It’s fairly straightforward, don’t you think?” She asked. “Arrive at the bank, steal the money, then we leave.”

“Right. I was a little concerned that we didn’t have a plan, but it seems like we have everything in hand.” Cain said, bopping himself on the forehead. “How silly of me.”

“Quite droll.” She replied, rolling her eyes. “I would doubt that someone of your caliber would not already have some kind of plan in motion. However, I have information that will allow us to pull off this particular heist with little to no interference.”

The reference to his supposed abilities did not go unnoticed. Cain nodded slowly and looked away, his mind racing to figure out, yet again, what was the purpose of all of this? Was he being set up as a fall guy? Steal from the New Republic and then blame it on him, instead of the blame falling into the lap of the Empire? It seemed like a good idea. Cain didn’t presuppose to know a lot about galactic politics, but he did know that the Empire and the New Republic were in a very uneasy truce. If they were going to move against each other, it would be clandestine and cloak and dagger, something that definitely fell under the auspices of this calculated movement. He was starting to get more and more worried about all of this.

She continued to speak, ignoring the look on his face. Activating the holoprojector in the ready room of the Carrack-class Cruiser, the Aggressor, Zara pulled up a display of a planet, one that Cain had never heard of, or seen before.

“This is the planet Plagen, in the Pax system. It’s designated as part of the Hydian Way. As such, the planet gets a large amount of trade. There’s an exceptional amount of Aurodium on the planet. Our major problem is the garrison of New Republic forces that are present. Obviously, we can’t show up in the cruiser, hence the freighter. But once we do the deed, so to speak, the garrison will be alerted, and escape will be far more difficult.” Zara said.

“What’s the garrison?” He asked.

“Nothing too difficult to deal with.” She replied, with an offhanded shrug. “A Majestic-class Cruiser, a Corona-class Frigate with complement of NR Defenders, and another two squadrons of snubfighters, Z-95 Headhunters, I believe, on the planet below.” She said.

“And us, all by our lonesome, in a freighter. I’m really going to need to hear this plan.”

“It’s a smash and grab, nothing too difficult.” Zara said with a smile. She looked at the planet on the holoprojector. “We’re going to go in, bomb the place, steal the aurodium, and leave.”

He gaped at her. “What, just hope that our engines outrun the New Republic forces in system, and that our exit hyperspace vector isn’t blocked?” He asked. “That’s the plan, correct me if I’m wrong. That plan sounds stupid as hell.” He said. Cain shook his head, trying to figure out how this was going to happen. “The variables are too much to consider. You don't have any idea of what could go wrong.”

Mayehn spoke, from his corner of the room. “What would your plan be then?” He asked, quietly. He raised his eyebrows when Cain looked at him, and he gestured with his hands, opening them, giving Cain the floor, so to speak.

“Well, I definitely wouldn’t do this. This is stupid.” Cain said, getting angry. “You guys kidnap me, tell me I’m someone I’m not. Then you tell me that I’m being forced into a fight that I have no interest in being a part of. After all of that, which is unbelievable in the first place, the plan that you’re putting in front of me makes no sense.” He said.

He sighed, and shook his head. None of this made any sense to him. After a moment, Cain realized that he was walking around the room, trying to figure out how to make heads or tails of the mess that he was in. Looking at the two, he saw that they were waiting for him to talk still.

“Fine, you want to know how I’d do it?” He asked. “I’d create a distraction. Specifically one that happens after we make the grab. This way whatever we do is a small blip on the radar of the New Republic forces. By the time they’re done with the distraction and done trying to figure out what happened, we’re in the clear.” He said.

“How would you suggest that we distract the New Republic forces in system?” Zara asked.

He paused and considered. This was an interesting problem. How would they go about distracting the New Republic forces? Looking around, he smiled, having gotten his answer. “This ship.” He said. “We change the transponders or whatever to make it look like a pirate ship. Maybe some cosmetic changes. This way, when it comes in system, the New Republic doesn’t think that it’s an Imperial ship, just a pirate ship trying to hit a New Republic system. When we get there, in the freighter, we see if we can get any information on convoys that are coming into the area, and we use the convoy as a perfect cover.” He said.

Zara was silent for a while and then she smiled. “That’s an excellent idea.” She said, looking at Mayehn who nodded.

Cain sighed and tried to look relieved. Really he wasn’t. Then she said something that took whatever relief he had gotten and tossed it out of the window.

“A plan befitting a mercenary with the reputation of Anris Stoy. Yet you keep claiming that you are not him.” She said, a twinkle in her eye as she walked out of the room. “We’ll go with your plan.”

Cain’s eyes were a bit bloodshot when he walked out of the refresher. They were currently on the YT-2000 that they had borrowed from the impound lot at the Imperial Intelligence substation. As they hurtled through hyperspace, Cain had tried to get some sleep, but it had evaded him. He had allowed himself to be trapped by all of this. She’d put forward a shoddy plan, knowing that he would say something about it. All to back up this supposed theory that he was a mercenary that he wasn’t. No, he was just someone who possessed common sense. His old friend, Tro-Se Miski would have known what to do. Tro was a smart guy.

Was being the operative word.

Another casualty in this whole orchestration of Zara Crasnir’s design, and Cain had no idea what she was really all about. Now he was about to break into a New Republic bank and steal a fortune in aurodium ingots. The probability of being killed was very high. But sure yes, he should be able to sleep without a problem. Walking through the ship, he passed by the cockpit and saw Mayehn sitting in the pilot’s seat. There wasn’t that much to do during a trip through hyperspace, so the man was sitting there, reading.

Reading. That just added a whole new twist to things. Mayehn was an interesting fellow. Maybe Cain would have been mildly interested in knowing more about the man, had he not been instrumental in how Cain was in this mess in the first place. He was about to walk past an open doorway, when he saw something inside that caught his attention.

It was Zara, sitting cross-legged on a couch, her eyes closed. She seemed at peace, as if she was far, far away, in a place that offered some modicum of comfort to a woman that seemed too complicated for her reality. He remembered the name that people had called her in the office of Imperial Intelligence. Mara Hagris. What was that all about? So she had multiple names, that much was obvious. But if the purpose of telling him one name was for him to believe that she was that person, she had allowed him to witness herself being called by a different name.

Now that didn’t make much sense to Cain. He walked into the room, and stood there, watching her. She made no move, no motion that would indicate that she knew that he was there. There was something eerie about the way that she sat there, as if she was communing with someone or something.

Maybe that was how she came up with her crazy plans.

Without saying a word to wake her, Cain turned around and walked out of the room. There were other places that he could be on the ship, despite its small size, that wouldn’t come across as very creepy. He’d heard of meditation, and he knew that Jedi or Force people did it. But the idea of Zara being a Force user was laughable.